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Conventional weapons threaten human security. Small arms alone kill an estimated half a million people each year. Indiscriminate weapons such as cluster bombs and landmines kill and injure thousands more and contaminate the land, endangering people even after conflicts end.
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has increased military assistance to secure the cooperation of other governments with its counterterrorism agenda. In many cases, the governments receiving the weapons and training have committed egregious human rights violations.
FCNL informs Congress and the general public about the short- and long-term dangers posed by the use and transfer of weapons and lobbies Congress to exercise greater responsibility.
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More than 100 Countries Ban Cluster Bombs
In December 2008, more than half the world's governments signed a treaty banning the production, use, stockpiling, and export of all existing cluster munitions.
The United States did not participate, but several U.S. senators support the treaty. Urge your senators to support the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 416).
Why Ban Cluster Bombs?
“You’d ban them for sure, if you had them here.”
~ Soraj Ghulam Habib, 17, who lost both legs after picking up a cluster submunition in a park in Herat, Afghanistan when he was ten.
Watch this video and imagine if we had landmines and cluster submunitions littering our parks and soccer fields.
Reviewed:
04/01/2009
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